Raining On Nearly All of Alabama

This radar composite shows that it is raining over at least 90% of the state of Alabama at this hour. Only extreme eastern sections are not getting rain at this hour.

The heaviest rain over Central Alabama is over Tuscaloosa, Bibb and Perry Counties. It will be lifting northeastward into Jefferson and Shelby Counties over the next hour. Can’t find any thunder, but there could be a clap or two as this feature moves northeastward. It appears to be associated with an upper level disturbance that has developed.

Rainfall rates are over one half inch per hour over a good bit of West Alabama.

The heavy rain extends southward to the Gulf Coast, through Marengo, Clarke and Mobile and Baldwin Counties. Our Lamar County Skywatcher reports 1.77 inches of rain so far. Ron Hughes in Coker is just a tenth of an inch behind that. John Talbot in Hueytown had 0.63 inches just after 5 p.m. At the Birmingham Airport, 0.32 inches had fallen so far today through 5 p.m. Then 0.39 inches fell in just 38 minutes putting us at 0.72 inches so far today. This brings the storm total to just over one inch when added to the 0.29 that occurred overnight.

Further south, an arc of intense thunderstorms extends from just south of Orange Beach into the Gulf of Mexico for at least 100 miles. It is just ahead of a low pressure system located on the Mississippi Coast. The low appears to be moving east now, not north northeast as we had expected. Any cells ahead of this line could produce tornadoes and there could be damaging winds and tornadoes with the squall line. A tornado watch is in effect for South Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

Category: Alabama's Weather